Lizard

Yes, I find Larry to be a bit cartoonish especially his animations and expressions.

I think its because of all the wrinkles on his face that we can't really see in hl2 version. Looking at his hair tho you can tell he is a bit younger

Is there anything you prefer over hl2? ?

This is awesome!

And how exactly you want to balance a map that has learning curve and welcomes complexity? You gonna end up with not fun map. What you dont seem to realise is that a csgo community vary a lot in terms of player skill. It's all great to have some complex tactics that gives your team an advantage until a new and unskilled player comes and gets rekt by your team and loose interest in playing your map because he wasn't aware of that.

It's more about map control theory. If you commit a player to an area that happens to be a dead end with not really advantages, you wasted a lot of resources. It is really bad feeling to commit to an area to realise its a dead end.

That is not true. You can take a look on official dz maps. They dont have much empty spaces. I think more details in some areas is a valid feedback.

What I also like to do is to take an area from a greybox that I'm sure wont change much and do artpass on it. Sort of test scene for lighting and assets.

Mostly in blockout stage then tweak if needed when set dressing. The problem with this approach is that you get used to how map looks and feels like. Its super hard to change lighting drasticly later on + you can have problem with custom assets that just dont look good with new lighting.

Exactly this. I learned this hard way sadly ... Eyes will get tired very quick in light settings like chlorine had initially. This will lead to increased irritation in players and they won't play the map that often. But I still think that there is a lot space to experiment with lighting. Sun angle and brightness for example. And of course color but in limited range. ~EDIT~ Also sky was made by one and only @Radu

Of course. How do you want to balance a chokepoint anyway? Default strar for most cs maps is 2 - A, 2- B and 1 mid player. CT team is always harder because T's can just outnumber them on bombsites (full rush). This is why chokepoints are designed... to compensate advantage of player count on T team. And obviously that is why buying utility is a crucial part of tactics on T side.

Then purchasing them will move the odds the other way around. If the choke point is balanced by default using smokes will easily create an advantage for one team or another...

More like.. This particular youtuber likes it I bet I can find dozen of videos of people disliking it.

For me AC games lost the main pillar of gameplay long time ago (for me at least). It was climbing the environment to gain advantage, re-route, hide and stealth through some dangerous part of the city. I get it that they need something fresh in the series but why not make a totally different ip?

Keep in mind that you can also play with the textures to bring more "warm" to your map. Light will bounce from the walls and have different color values. Keep it up!

I would say it applies to the environment more than light color values.

To be honest I like the left one a lot better BUT... You would need to have a good contrast with indoor areas. Right now they have almost the same color value. Another thing is that it will drain the visual stamina of the players. Their eyes will get tired a lot quicker with dim lighting like this. And because of that reason I would go with the right one + have some street lights with the warm color like on the left so you end up with warm spots like on the left.

They deal more damage and have bigger AOE.

It is two sided sword... The cool advantage of boost spots is that you can gain access to area you wouldn't normally have but this requires another player hence, drawing them back from other parts of the map. This means there is also an advantage for enemy team. If you see someone boosting you are 100% sure the other player is also there. This gives a crucial info in some situations for other players. Here you can't be really sure if there are 2 players boosting or just one so you get that out of the equation.

What I mean by this is that you make this jump dependent on so many variables that it will almost feel random and cheesy rather than calculated design. I get the risk and reward here but the problem with RAR in multiplayer is that it needs to be clear what this trick does for both teams. Otherwise you will end up with overpowered spots on the map.

Ahh there is nothing better than ambiguous situation where you can jump or boost. Especially in competitive environment.

And what is the reason for this hassle of a jump?

Wanted to buy Mirrors Edge today. Turns out I already have it

I feel like the game does this to some extent. I played FC5 two times. On my first try I didnt finish the whole game just one map region. On my second try the game directed me almost the same way as on my first try even tho its an open world game. You are totally right about trucks and hostages. They are so "small" and are limited to just shooting two guys in the head. I would love them to get more complex in FC6.

The world of FC5 is beautiful but i feel that its mostly empty. Traversing the land was most of the times boring. It would be better to have some smaller open world activities to do. Loved the setting and the story overall.